First Love
by Cherry-Fiona
Summary: What happens when Batman's first love reenters his life? And where does Wonder Woman stand in his heart? What kind of a person would the present Bruce Wayne choose? Inspired by Batman Begins. Rated K for now.
1. Just a Friend

**First Love** by chrryfiona

Chapter 1: Just a Friend

He hated funerals and this one was no exception. It always seemed to rain – at least, it did the funerals he attended. There was no question, however, of his not going because Rachel Finch née Dawes was his childhood friend and, for a short while, lover. She was still undeniably a beautiful woman; the years merely matured her, making her curvier. They say that one never gets over one's first love but Bruce didn't think that bias influenced too much how he saw Rachel as she stood near the priest, watching the coffin being lowered six feet into the ground. She had said she would wait for him, but in the end, the waiting became too much.

_"The man I loved, the man who vanished, never came back."  
_  
The words stung him as she had known they would, for they were her last attempt at forcing him to give up his dual identity.

_"I spend a lot of time being scared for you."  
_  
In the end, she could only see that he loved his dark side more than he loved her and so she had quit her job to marry her boss, Carl Finch, Gotham's ambitious District Attorney, and spent the last 10 years helping him with his political campaign to be the youngest governor of Gotham City. That dream was cut short by a fanatic lobbying against the recent Death Penalty bill. The ironic thing was, Finch was neither for nor against the bill and was merely biding his time to see which position would benefit his chances for election. Unfortunately, he played his cards too well and one bullet later, Rachel became a widow.

Lost in his thoughts, Bruce didn't notice the tall woman by his side until her husky voice reached his ears.

"Do you mind if I share your umbrella, Mr. Wayne? I seem to have forgotten mine in the Watchtower."

"Dia…!" He caught himself. "Princess. I didn't know Themiscyra kept such a close eye on Gotham politicians."

She shrugged noncommittally. "I didn't know playboy and jetsetter Bruce Wayne cared about Gotham politicians either. Or any politician, for that matter. Their wives, on the other hand…"

"Careful, Your Highness. I might think you were jealous."

At a standstill, the two stood side by side in silence. The rain was coming to an end and Bruce noticed gratefully that the funeral was too. A line formed as people walked forward to offer Rachel their sympathies.

"I'm sorry, Bruce. I know you hate funerals and I didn't want you to go alone." Diana said softly, eyes still faced forward and not looking at her companion. Bruce didn't say anything to acknowledge that he had heard her but he took her right hand and tucked it around his left arm which was holding the umbrella.

"Bruce." A teary girlish voice greeted him.

"Rachel. I'm so very sorry." And he was. He knew all too well what it felt to lose a loved one, especially if that person was the foundation of your life.

Rachel leaned forward, her arms outstretched to embrace Bruce only to be stopped short when she noticed Diana's presence. "Wonder Woman?"

"Mrs. Finch." Diana looked at the woman who had moved closer to Bruce and was now leaning slightly against him. She was tall too, only an inch or so shorter than Diana but so slender, so delicate, so… feminine. Everything that the Warrior Princess knew she herself was not. More importantly, this woman had a history with Bruce. She knew a side of him that Diana did not and never would. Yet despite her all too painful jealousy, Diana could not help feeling honest pity for this woman who had just lost a husband and whose face was tracked with tears.

"Please accept my condolences for your loss."

"Thank you, Wonder Woman. Carl was always a big fan of yours." Rachel turned toward the man standing between them. "We haven't seen each other in ages, Bruce. Do you think we can meet for dinner tonight?" Seeing his hesitation, she placed a hand on his chest.

"Please, Bruce. I really need to talk to you." She lowered her voice. "I need to talk to Batman."

His eyes searched her face before nodding. "Of course. Do you want me to pick you up?"

"No, I'll meet you at Wayne Manor at 7:30."

They moved aside to let the next person talk with Rachel and as they walked out of the cemetery toward the parking lot, Bruce found himself once again appreciative of Diana's long legs, though in this instance it was for a less prurient reason. The fickle clouds had decided to stay after all and the drops rained down harder than before. Even with their quick steps, they were still slightly damp when they got into Bruce's limousine. Alfred, proficient butler that he was, handed both of them small towels before turning to maneuver his way around the mass exodus of cars.

"She's a very beautiful woman, Bruce." Diana noted tauntingly.

"She's just a friend. A childhood friend." He emphasized.

"Hmmm…"

He wordlessly quirked an eyebrow at her.

Ignoring him, she continued to dab the towel lightly down her shirt.

"That's a very annoying habit you've picked up from Alfred, you know. Just say what you think."

"Well, if she's 'just a friend' as you put it, then I don't know what to think now."

"What is there to think about? We're just two friends having dinner."

Still not looking at him, she raised her voice to the man behind the wheel. "Actually, Alfred, you can let me out. I can fly back to the Watchtower just as easily from here." And before Bruce could say another word, Diana had already opened the door and was gone.

Alfred, seeing that the traffic had prevented him from moving any further, decided to take pity on his young master. "Sir, I believe the Princess was trying to tell you that you've forgotten you have a dinner date with her." He clarified helpfully. "This very evening."

Bruce closed his eyes as realization dawned on him. "Shit. It's Diana's …"

"Birthday, sir."

"Shit."

"Quite, sir."

**_This is my first ever BM/WW fanfic. I know this is a short first chapter but I sort of have the whole story plotted out already so I promise I'll put up the next chapter real soon. In the meantime, please tell me what you think._**


	2. Out of Practice

**First Love** by chrryfiona

Chapter 2: Out of Practice

Sweat dripped down Diana's neck and pooled down her cleavage. She hated when that happened and the fact that her opponent could cause her to exert that much effort was just one more strike she had against him. The brief rest exposed her to a side swing and she barely had time to raise her wrists to defend her face.

"Bastard!" She muttered between clenched teeth and tried to redirect her thoughts back on the fight.

"So the Princess swears. How unladylike," tutted Batman, or rather the robot clone of the Dark Knight. The Justice Lords had been defeated but Batman and J'onn had salvaged the robot clones left behind. With some deft mechanical manipulations on Batman's part, the clones were now available for anyone in Justice League who wanted to enhance their training. While they did not harbor any independent thought, J'onn decided to make them worthy sparring partners by retaining some of the originals' moves and personalities. This Batman robot had every annoying mannerism of his human counterpart from the ruthlessness with which he delivered an attack to the irksome taunts designed to anger his opponent into making stupid mistakes.

Diana flipped backward to avoid a series of jabs from the martial arts expert. She had fought with all of the robot clones before and still thought the Batman versions were the hardest to defeat even though the Superman ones packed the hardest punch. They were harder to anticipate and while Diana wouldn't put it past Bruce to give a few extra tweaking to his own robots, she believed that their unpredictability was a mere reflection of what the real Batman was like.

That does it. She had to fight like Batman if she wanted to defeat his mechanical counterpart before she dropped from exhaustion. She had come to the Training Room to release steam but learned early in the sparring session that if her mind was elsewhere, her body tended to tire much faster than normal.

Catching the robot's front kick painfully with her hip, she grasped it firmly to her side and moved closer to her opponent as she jammed her knee up his crotch and stomped forward on his kneecap in one smooth motion. As the robot fell to the ground deprived of his lower left leg, Diana grabbed its head and twisted viciously, effectively decapitating the Batman clone.

"Impressive." A feminine voice applauded.

Diana tossed the head aside and walked toward Vixen. The other woman held out a towel and a bottle of spring water which Diana accepted gratefully.

She gulped down half the bottle before saying, "Thanks for getting me Poland Spring. How did you know I hate Evian?"

Vixen nodded understandingly. "Can't stand it myself either. The mineral flavor is just plain awful. By the way, you do know that knee thrust was pointless, don't you? It's not like the robot is an actual man and can feel pain down there."

"Yeah, well," shrugged the Warrior Woman and continued to down the rest of the water.

"Ahhhh… so it's like that, is it? What's Batman done now?"

"You got a few hours?"

* * *

"The files you requested, sir."

"Thanks, Alfred."

"If you don't mind my saying, Master Bruce, I don't think having dinner with Mrs. Finch in your Batman suit is very _de rigeur_. Or comfortable, for that matter. Wouldn't you rather a tux, or if you want to be more casual, perhaps …"

"Rachel won't be coming here, Alfred. I doubt _Mrs. Finch _is making an attempt at auld lang syne. She did request to talk to Batman, after all, and you know I do not like to bring Batman's world to Wayne Manor." Bruce said as he inserted the CD into his desktop and pulled up the info his faithful butler had gathered on Carl Finch. He immediately focused his attention on the late gubernatorial candidate's finances. When it came to politicians, and pretty much everybody else really, Bruce found that the saying "follow the money" was always a reliable motto.

Alfred sighed. "I am sorry to hear that, sir. I was in the process of preparing Peking Duck but I suppose you won't be eating home after all."

Bruce continued to scroll through the spreadsheets which itemized Finch's every expenditure. Without raising his eyes from the computer screen, he said as nonchalantly as he could, "Actually, I will be coming back. Would you mind making a black forest cake for dessert? It's Diana's favorite and I was planning on inviting her here to celebrate her birthday as soon as I finished meeting with Rachel. You've been complaining that I haven't eaten at home for a while and I know you hate it when you prepare food with no one to appreciate them."

"Thank you, sir. You are always thinking of me." The older man commented dryly. A full smirk would have been too undignified for such a professional butler as Alfred prided himself to be but the British allowed himself a little triumphant smile as he left the room.

Hearing the footsteps fade behind him, Bruce grimaced at the screen. He could have pulled that off a little more smoothly, though he reasoned he was somewhat out of practice. Understandable really since he hadn't dated anyone seriously in a while. Even so, it had recently come to Bruce's attention that he seemed to act his most awkward when a certain Amazon princess was involved.

There was that time when she noticed his gloves burnt and dirty from trying to dig her out beneath a missile. He had acted like a madman as he continued to pull away rock after rock even while a logical part of him knew it was futile and foolish to hope that anyone could survive being buried beneath 300 tons of steel. To pile insult on top of injury, she had given him a thank you kiss and although he had turned away in silent denial, he knew his face, especially the part not covered by his mask, had turned red.

Then there was that glorious day in the Watchtower cafeteria. What a painfully clichéd moment that was. He was trying to escape Green Lantern's insinuations by making obvious declarations about how he and Wonder Woman were just friends and that he valued her as a member of the Justice League. Of course, as such situations went, the topic of their conversation just had to be standing right behind him listening to him protest too much.

And let's not forget that episode where he, the laconic and fear-inducing Batman, had to sing in public in order to get Circe to turn Diana back to human. He never regretted doing it because Diana's life was at stake but it was still not an event he looked back on with fondness either. It was almost a pity that he wasn't attempting to be uncool because he really could not have done a better job.

Bruce shook his head to clear his thoughts of other embarrassing moments and turned his attention back to Finch's bank account only to notice the name of one of the political party contributors. He leaned closer, unable to believe his eyes, and muttered, "Rachel, what have you gotten yourself into?"


	3. Ladies' Night Out

Disclaimer: Here's where I say I wish I owned the JLA characters, especially Batman, but if wishes were horses, I'd have a ranch and go riding every day.

**First Love **by chrryfiona  
Chapter 3: Ladies' Night Out

"He did what? That bastard!"

Diana nodded in agreement, lifting her fifth – nah must be her third – shotglass and stared at the yellow fluid. Hmm… looks like urine. Now why was Vixen taking her to a place that served pee? That observation prompted a giggle, causing her to spill the contents of the shotglass.

"Hey, Vixen!" Diana pointed at the table and hiccupped. "Look Vixen. Pee pee." The Warrior Princess, royal diplomat of the Amazon island of Themiscyra, began to snort indelicately with laughter.

"Easy there, ma'am." A masculine arm wrapped around Diana and caught her arm before she could topple backward from her stool.

"Ouch! That hurt!" She turned her head and glared balefully at the large ring which had scratched her upper arm.

"My apologies, ma'am. I may have been too heavy handed but I was afraid you would fall. Are you okay?" The man was tall and swarthy. With a nose that clearly had been broken before and then poorly mended, the man's features could not be considered classically handsome but that was not a deterrent. The size of the diamond ring on his pinky had immediately announced his wealth to everyone who saw it, as evidenced by the looks of interest from many of the women and not a few of the men sitting at the bar.

Unfortunately, Diana was not one of his admirers. His words had triggered a sensitive memory which consisted of Batman refusing to have a relationship with her, reasoning that his enemies would try to get at him by hurting her. It had all sounded very logical when he said it at the time but apparently, that sort of logical reasoning did not apply when the person opposite him was the first woman he had ever loved. And probably still loved.

The anger she felt cut through the alcoholic haze. She spat the stranger's concern back at him. "Afraid that I would fall? All you men are heavy handed. Do you think all of us females are weak and delicate? I can take care of myself, do you hear me? I don't need you or anyone to protect me. Hah! As if you really wanted to protect me! You just wanted an excuse to run and hide from the big scary Amazon with the tiara. You're not just a rich kid with issues."

She stood up and pulled him by the shirt toward her. "You …" She grabbed his face and kissed him hard. "…are a cowardly…" Kiss. "…stupid…" Another kiss. "…rich kid with issues."

The dazed man suddenly found himself at the receiving end of an undeniably feminine but extraordinarily hard fist. He felt the skin over his cheekbones split as he was sent flying over the counter. Fortunately for him, he was stopped before he could hit the shelves holding the glasses and wine bottles. Unfortunately for the innocent bystander of a bartender, it was _his_ body which stopped the momentum of the good Samaritan and it was _his_ head which got drenched with alcohol.

Vixen had been overtaken with surprise when she saw Diana kiss a perfect stranger and in her shock, she didn't have time to stop her friend. Not that she really tried too hard. It was Wonder Woman, after all. "My mama didn't raise no stupid daughter," Vixen muttered under her breath. "Come on, Your Drunken Highness. I think it's time for all good little princesses to go home and sleep. Let's get you back to the limo."

* * *

The woman walked naked out of the steamed bathroom. She retrieved a long red evening gown from her closet. Sliding it over her head, she looked in the mirror and screamed when she saw a shadowed figure behind her.

"Batman!"

"Hello, Mrs. Finch. I hear you wanted to talk to me?"

"My God, Bruce! Did you have to scare me like that? What are you doing here? I thought we were going to have dinner at your place."

"You might want to zip up your gown first before you start telling me why the Ra's al Ghul Foundation donated such a large amount of money to your husband's campaign."

Rachel shot him a look of disbelief as she angrily yanked her gown into place. "You haven't changed at all. Couldn't you wait for me to tell you?" She tried to contort her back and arms but gave up when the zipper would only go up to her shoulder blades. The Dark Knight brushed away her hands and pulled the zipper up the rest of the way. For the past ten years Rachel only rarely regretted her marriage to Carl but Bruce's hands on her back now made her recall all of the love she had felt and still did for the boy she had grown up with. Except the person behind her was no longer a boy. He had matured into a man whose strength and charisma exuded a sexual aura unsurpassed by any lover she had ever had. For some reason, his power made her feel even more vulnerable and suddenly, overwhelmed with the stress of the recent events, she was unable to stop the tears from running down her face.

"Bruce, oh Bruce, you're the only one who can help me. Please, you must believe me. I didn't know about Carl's connection with the Ra's al Ghul Foundation until recently. I think they may have been behind his death."

Batman swore silently. The Gotham Knight hated tears because they were a weapon for which he had very little protection against. He awkwardly put his arms around Rachel. Comforting was not a skill he practiced often and he felt even more ridiculous offering it while wearing his fighting suit. He sighed and asked, "Why don't you tell me everything from the beginning?"

* * *

Diana lay lengthwise within the roomy limo. Vixen was sitting on the opposite seat, her dark skin a strikingly flattering contrast to the white leather around her. Twirling a champagne glass in one hand, she gazed at her friend. "Are you okay? What were you doing in there? Why did you kiss that stranger and then punch his lights out? Not that it wasn't the best entertainment I've had all week but I've never seen you behave like that before. Was it the alcohol?"

Diana shook her head but found out quickly that only made the throbbing sensation worse. She had never had alcohol before and now she doubted if she would ever let the vile stuff pass her lips again. She closed her eyes to obliterate the piercing brightness and spinning Vixen. "You know, I've seen my mother with Ares and as much as she claims to hate him, I can tell she hates herself more for still caring about him. Is it true that one never gets over a first love? "

Vixen twisted her lips into a bitter smile. "Don't get me started on that, girlfriend. You already know the problems I'm having with Green Lantern and his feelings for Hawk Girl."

"Then maybe you can tell me when I will stop hurting so much. I'm afraid of being like my mother. I'm afraid because Batman is the first man I've ever loved. I'm new to these feelings but I know the strength of my heart. Vixen, I fear I'll never be able to get over him."

"I don't know what to tell you, Diana." The other woman sipped the rest of the bubbly champagne and poured herself another glass. "Speaking from experience, I think it's hard to forget our first lover because we enter into that relationship completely innocent and idealistic. We haven't been hurt yet so the glasses that we wear are colored with hope and unadulterated love, as opposed to being tinged with bitter cynicism. Perhaps … Diana! Diana, what's wrong?"

Vixen leaned forward and grabbed her friend's hands. The Warrior Princess was clutching her chest as she herself began trembling like an autumn leaf before the wind blew it down. Her eyes rolled back until only the whites were showing, foam appeared on her lips, and within seconds, Diana's whole body started to convulse. The white foam first turned pink and then crimson red as saliva was replaced by blood.

"Watchtower! Prepare the infirmary. Two to beam up now!"

**_I really am sorry for taking so long in posting this chapter. I thought I'd have time over Christmas break to write but I spent it moving furniture instead. I want to say thank you to everyone who's been reading this story and leaving reviews. I am so very grateful for all of your support. Please let me know what you think of this chapter and how the story is going so far._**


	4. Betrayed

Disclaimer: Here's where I say I wish I owned the JLA characters, especially Batman, but if wishes were horses, I'd have a ranch and go riding every day.

**First Love **by chrryfiona

Chapter 4: Betrayed

"It's been over an hour," Vixen muttered worriedly.

She was standing outside the Infirmary with Superman, looking through the glass wall at Diana's unconscious body. The Amazon Princess' face was covered by a plastic oxygen mask. Attached to her right arm was an IV feeding her saline fluid. The room's tense silence was broken by a steady intermittent beep as a nurse connected a heart monitor to Diana. Ever since J'onn had left to places unknown, the Justice League had suffered the loss of his skills as both a strategist and a health care provider. With the help of Batman, Superman was able to hire some of the top doctors and nurses in the country but at times like this, the Man of Steel felt keenly the inadequacy of normal humans. He could have used the Martian Manhunter's psychic ability to awaken Diana.

Satisfied that Wonder Woman's vitals were stable, the doctor finally came out of the room. His name was Jake Isaac. He was 38, young and ambitious. Having graduated in the top 5 of his class, Jake had his choice of positions at the major hospitals in America though they all paled in comparison to his current job. As Batman had said when he recruited Jake, how many doctors could say they rubbed shoulders with the Justice League or that they worked in a huge self-sufficient satellite floating in space?

"She seems to be okay for now." Jake reported. "Her blood tests have come back. Aside from a slightly elevated alcohol level, her CBC and BMP are completely normal which rules out an electrolyte abnormality as being the cause of the seizure. It's almost ridiculous to even contemplate Wonder Woman having epilepsy. She doesn't have an alien genetic makeup like you, Superman. In fact, she is more similar to the average human though her body is enhanced – almost perfectly so because it has the capability of fighting against any foreign body and thus can heal at a much faster rate than the normal person. Her cells can regenerate countless times without showing any of the damages from genetic mutations or the regular wear-and-tear. She doesn't have a fever and the ESR which would be elevated in cases of inflammation is bafflingly normal. If we eliminate genetics and infections, the only other possibility is drugs."

"That's ridiculous!" exclaimed Vixen. In her anger, she grabbed the shorter doctor by the tie, leaving him to dangle on his toes. "Are you accusing me of giving Wonder Woman drugs?" She shook him and Jake's red face began to turn purple.

Superman put a calming hand on her shoulder. "Of course you would not and Dr. Isaac knows that. Let the man go, Vixen."

Vixen released her prisoner from a death of asphyxiation and returned to her original spot behind the glass wall. An aura of fury emanated from her body but immediately dissipated at Jake's gasping words.

"GBS …" Cough, cough. "…common thing…" Cough. "…women in bars…"

"Are you trying to say maybe someone slipped something in Diana's drink?"

Jake nodded, still silent. His eyes were tearing from the effort of trying to gulp air into his oxygen-deprived lungs. Maybe he should look into finding another job. He could always go back to Johns Hopkins. They were offering him that research position. It had sounded dull at the time but at least no one would be trying to kill him there. Massaging his Adam's apple, Jake finally felt able to speak without collapsing. "I'll do a more extensive tox screen on Wonder Woman. I just can't imagine a common street drug would have such an effect on her body but anything is …"

Whatever the doctor was going to say was interrupted by the sudden commotion in the Infirmary. Diana's body began jerking spasmodically, her arms flailing so wildly that the IV needle was ripped out. She pulled the mask off her face just in time to cough up more blood. Jake rushed to her side, a needle of benzodiazepine in his hand. For the second time in five minutes, the doctor found his neck clutched tightly by a woman with superhuman strength.

"Batman. Get. Him." Diana struggled to get the words out. "He will …" Her hand around Jake's neck loosened as she slumped back onto the bed. The heart monitor in the room impassively changed from a steady intermittent beep to a shrill uninterrupted one.

"I never really got over you, you know." Rachel smiled sadly, her hand cupping her former lover's face below his mask. "Carl knew it, of course. Whenever we argued, he would always bring your name up. He was always bitter because how could he compete against the billionaire Bruce Wayne? I think one of the reasons why he was so driven to run for governor of Gotham was because he wanted to rule the city whose economy you controlled. Wayne Corp does employ more than half of the citizens here."

"You could have told him it was over between us." Bruce's deep voice reasoned.

"Is that what you think, Bruce? Is it really over?"

He shrugged. "You were the one to walk away, if I recall correctly."

"So I did." She inhaled raggedly. "I got so tired of his insinuations and after one especially trying shouting match, I finally told him there could never be a future for you and me because of who you really were."

Bruce froze. He took a step toward his childhood sweetheart. "You did what?" He asked, his tone all the more menacing for its softness.

"Batman!" A frantic voice called out, cutting through the silence in the room. Without looking away from the woman in front of him, Batman snapped out a terse "I'm busy" and disconnected the communicator device on his belt.

Rachel backed away, unable to meet his accusing eyes. "I didn't plan to, Bruce. I regretted it as soon as I said it and I begged Carl not to reveal your secret to anybody." The words rushed out of her mouth like water from a broken dam as she tried to justify her actions. "Things got better between us after that. Two weeks ago, I discovered the name Malka al Ghul on the guest list to one of our parties. I confronted Carl about this and he told me she was one of his biggest contributors. I tried to …"

"So first you betrayed me to your husband and then you compounded your mistake by revealing my past history with Ra's al Ghul." Batman filled in.

Rachel shook her head desperately. "Bruce, I thought that if I…"

"The problem was you didn't think at all."

She gasped. "How can you say that? Who are you? The Bruce Wayne I know would never have spoken so cruelly to me."

"I'm sure you never spared a thought about my safety but surely you should have anticipated how such knowledge would only put your husband and yourself more at risk to my enemies."

"No matter what you believe, I would never intentionally do anything to hurt you. And my husband may not be the great Batman, but I know he's not without honor. I believe he died because he was trying to protect your identity."

An eyebrow lifted sarcastically but silently. Rachel straightened herself in response. "When Carl was shot, the last words he said was 'Tell him.' I knew he could only mean you and I'm afraid he was murdered by someone of the al Ghul bloodline."

"You say I'm cruel? _Think_, Mrs. Finch. You were a former Assistant DA. Why would you kill someone who had information you needed?"

Rachel paled. She covered her face with her hands in horror. "Because you've already obtained the information you needed from that person. Bruce, what have I done? What have I done?" She lifted her eyes but she was speaking to an empty room because he was gone.

**_Many, many thanks to everyone who's been following this story and leaving reviews. Whenever I'm stuck, I always go back to read your comments because they give me the motivation to continue writing. I have the next chapter pretty much planned out so hopefully, if the real world doesn't intrude, I should post it soon. In the meantime, please tell me what you think of the story so far._**


	5. Voices

Disclaimer: Here's where I say I wish I owned the JLA characters, especially Batman, but if wishes were horses, I'd have a ranch and go riding every day.

**First Love** by chrryfiona

Chapter 5: Voices

"_Wake up, Diana. They're talking about you."_

"Her heart is back in sinus rhythm, Doctor. Oxygen sat is up to 100.

"Good. She's coming about. I was afraid we would have to defib her again."

"_Careful! He's going to hurt you!"_

Diana screamed. She jack-knifed up in bed, her hand reaching out to grab the throat of the man hovering over her. "Get. Away. From. Me." Her voice was guttural to mask her fear but she could do nothing about the tremors running through her whole body.

"Please, Wonder Woman," Jake managed to gasp out but as Diana's hand clamped tighter around his trachea, his mouth began to open and close soundlessly like a fish out of water.

"Diana! He's only trying to help. What are you doing? You'll kill him." Vixen grabbed her friend's wrist but was unable to pry off Diana's fingers.

"_She's lying. She's working with him too."_

A fist came flying at Vixen's face. She turned her head to one side so that it clipped her jaw instead. Diana's brief bout with death did not diminish her strength however, and the power behind the punch sent Vixen to the floor.

"You're lying. You two are working together. Who are you? Why have you brought me here?"

"What are you talking about? I'm your friend. This is the Watchtower, your home. Don't you remember?"

"_She's lying. You have no friends. You have no family. You have no one." _

"You're not my friend. I have no friends. Why are you lying to me?" The Amazon Princess punctuated her question with a squeeze and shake to Jake's neck. The doctor, deprived of air for so long, became a dead weight held up only by Diana's hand. She looked at his head slumped over to the side like a daisy with its stem broken and horrified, she let him drop to the floor.

"No… no… I didn't mean to kill him. He was going to hurt me. I was only protecting myself." She turned beseeching eyes toward Vixen who had crawled over to Jake's body. "I didn't mean to. Please… I didn't …"

"It's okay, Diana. His pulse is a little weak but it's still there. Once his airways start opening up again, he'll be alright." Vixen began to feel around Jake's neck for any evidence of fractures, sighing with relief to find out the young doctor would suffer no more than a ring of bruises and a painful case of laryngitis. She then turned toward her friend who was now sitting back on her heels, her hands over her head as if hiding in shame. Vixen could not believe the woman in front of her was the proud Wonder Woman, Princess of the Amazons and a founding member of the Justice League. She had never seen Diana look so scared. Her urge to comfort her friend was strong but she was hesitant to come any closer. Her jaw was still aching.

"Diana? Superman's gone to get Batman."

"Batman?" A pair of blue eyes peeked out from behind the folded arms.

"Yeah," Vixen smiled encouragingly. "You asked for him, remember? Whatever's wrong, he'll figure it out. You just have to hang in there, ok? Just hang in there."

"_She's stalling for time. She's planning something. You must kill her before she kills you. Kill her. Kill her. Kill her. Kill her. K…"_

"Shut up! Shut up!"

* * *

The Dark Knight looked down at the city that was his home, his reason for living. There was nothing special about Gotham. Like any overly populated urban setting, Gotham had filthy streets and even filthier inhabitants. The night did nothing to hide the city's flaws and if anything, even enhanced them; the crooks loved the cover of the long shadows provided by the tall buildings and numerous alleys. These human rats were thieves, killers, rapists with no conscience and very little fear. What little of the latter emotion they did possess was directed toward one legend by the name of Batman.

Bruce didn't delude himself on this matter however. He was fully aware that it was his masked image and the invincible omnipotent reputation he's made for himself that really inspired fear in his enemies. If they knew Batman was no more than the billionaire playboy Bruce Wayne, he would lose much of the edge he'd had over them. Even if he'd defeated them before, they would not hesitate to engage him again because this time, they'd be buoyed on by the knowledge that Batman was human and therefore could be killed. Or at the very least maimed. His control and thus protection of Gotham would become tenuous at best.

He blew out an angry breath. Despite the Gotham tabloids, Bruce Wayne had very few true relationships. After Rachel, there had been Vicki Vale, Dr. Chase Meridian, Selena Kyle aka Catwoman. Even though there was a part of him that knew the affairs would never last, he was always honest, albeit to a certain degree, with the women in his life. And even after the inevitable breakup, he had never worried that they would reveal his dual identity. He always thought he had good judgment when it came to people even if he couldn't find the right woman to suit both Bruce Wayne and Batman. How could he have been so wrong about Rachel? He had believed she was a woman of integrity. Then again, maybe it was his fault, his arrogance, for not taking her husband and the stresses of marriage into consideration. After all, none of his other exes got married after they broke up with him.

Realizing that he was not helping matters by second-guessing himself, Bruce gritted his teeth and redirected his thoughts toward damage control. Whoever this Malka al Ghul was, she already possessed the knowledge of Batman's alter ego and apparently had for at least a few weeks now, if not months. The fact that she had not yet revealed this to Gotham's newspapers meant it wasn't in her interest to do so. Yet. This meant he had some time to find out who she was and what she really wanted. He needed to get back to the Manor and do some research. A familiar silhouette of a bat surrounded by a ring of light shining in the night sky prevented that train of thought however. The silence was broken by the wailing of police sirens.

As he maneuvered the Batmobile through the streets of Gotham, Bruce suddenly remembered the call he had received from the Watchtower earlier. He swore silently, recalling also his dinner date with Diana. He could tell this was going to be one of those nights where nothing went right because the chances of him being on time for that was about the same as the Joker turning over a new leaf. And that was exactly nil, especially since the scene in front of him was of the Joker and Harley exiting the Bank of Gotham through a recently manufactured hole in the wall. He slowly and deliberately got out of the Batmobile, closing its door after him. Suddenly all the frustrations of the day, his bitterness at Rachel's betrayal, and his disappointment at not being able to spend Diana's birthday with her reached a peak inside him with the Joker's mocking voice pouring over his anger like oil over fire.

"You really are like a bad penny, Batsy old boy. You keep on popping up when …"

The Joker was never able to complete his sentence because his mouth met the side of Batman's boot. He flailed off-balanced against Harley whose smaller body was unable to support his weight due to the momentum of Batman's roundhouse kick. The bags they had slung across their backs slipped from their hands and diamonds poured out like sparkling water onto the ground.

"This is not the night to try my patience, Joker." Batman growled, as he hauled the trickster up by his collar. He passed a quick glance at the glittering stones at his feet. "No cash? That's not your usual MO."

"Well, Harley sweetheart here and me, we were planning on getting hitched, see? Can't live in sin forever, old boy. My girl wants a diamond ring and you know I always like to do things in style."

Behind him, Batman heard a click and without turning around, he knew Harley had a shooter pointed at his head.

"That's right, Batman. Let my sweetcakes go. We got a wedding to…."

Before Harley could finish her sentence, Batman grabbed the Joker by the wrist and swung him around like a windmill. Harley dropped her gun to avoid accidentally shooting her beloved maniac while inadvertently giving Batman the opportunity to twist her wrist. The gun landed on the ground. Both Joker and Harley made a mad dash for it but with a sweep of his feet and a flash of his hand, Batman sent the gun flying several feet away toward the police cars as well as his two opponents crashing into each other, tied together by the grapnel line around their ankles. He crouched down to face level with his long-time nemesis.

"Like I said, tonight is the wrong night to annoy me. And I'm getting very," he paused for emphasis. "_Very_ annoyed. So I'm only going to ask you this once. What do you want with the diamonds?"

Joker giggled nervously. "See, there was this birdie, right? The birdie …"

"I'm surprised you have the time to interrogate petty criminals, Batman."

A tall figure stepped out from the shadows. Batman raised his head slowly and instinctively went on guard. He didn't recognize the newcomer but the number of people who could sneak up on the Dark Knight could be counted on one hand. The man must have been standing there for quite some time but Batman hadn't sensed his presence at all. That in itself was more alarming than anything.

"And you are?"

"For now, think of me as a friend."

"Friends don't go unnamed. Or hide in shadows."

"Ah, but a friend would tell you that you'd be making the worst mistake of your life if you were to dilly-dally here while someone close to you were … shall we say… dying?"

Batman's hand twitched reflexively. _Someone close to him._ His voice was calmly nonchalant however. "One would think you're trying to divert my attention from the current situation."

The stranger laughed in honest humor. "And one would be right but that doesn't mean what I'm saying isn't true."

Batman remained silent, his eyes fixed on the stranger.

"She's very beautiful, your _Princess_. It would be a shame to see such loveliness and spirit depart from this world." The stranger fingered the small steri-strip on his cheekbone and smiled as if recalling a fond memory. He bent down and began to loosen the grapnel line around the Joker's legs. Batman's hand came hard and fast over his wrist.

"What do you think you're doing?"

The stranger paused. "You could stop me, I suppose. I should warn you though that the outcome of our fight would be much longer than that of yours with the Joker. And that is time you do not have. I don't know her well but I like your friend. And right now, she needs you more than Gotham does."

For the first time in his life, Batman let a criminal walk away with stolen loot. There was a clamor of protest from the policemen surrounding the scene. Batman turned his steely gaze away from the departing figures of the stranger, Joker, and Harley and focused on the men in blue behind him. "Anyone who shoots them will answer to me."

As he was getting into his Batmobile, he heard the stranger's voice coming out from the darkness. "Oh, I almost forgot. I would not let them do an MRI on her, if I were you. The results could be _bloody_ messy."

Within the confines of his vehicle, Batman's heart raced and he quickly turned the comm link back on. Before he could speak into it however, a voice shouted at him from the device.

"Where the hell have you been? I've been trying to contact you all night. What's the point of having a comm link if you're going to be incommunicado? We're in the middle of a crisis here!"

"Clark, shut up for a minute. What's wrong with Wonder Woman?"

"You know? If you know then why the hell didn't you answer my call?"

"If you're not going to say something useful then my talking to you is pointless." Bruce disconnected the channel he was on with Superman and went on another frequency. "Watchtower, transport me to the infirmary."

**_Wow, this chapter is a little longer than I expected. I hope you guys don't mind the length. Again thank you for everyone who's been reading this story and leaving reviews. I can't tell you how grateful I am for all your words of encouragement. They really are the best antidote against writer's block so let me know what you think of this latest chapter, ok? _**


	6. No Tears

Disclaimer: Here's where I say I wish I owned the JLA characters, especially Batman, but if wishes were horses, I'd have a ranch and go riding every day. 

**First Love** by chrryfiona

Chapter 6: No Tears

Bruce thought he had lost the ability to cry. It had been so many years and he was no longer that little helpless boy watching his parents murdered right before him. However, as Diana gazed at him through the glass wall of the Infirmary with visible fear in her bloodshot eyes, Bruce recalled every bit of that helplessness and realized crying was like riding a bicycle. He may not have done it for some time but the ability could never be forgotten.

"I really am at a lost." Dr. Isaac was telling Bruce, bewilderment in his hoarse voice. "If I didn't know better, I would have thought she had paranoid schizophrenia but the onset is just too acute to be anything but drug-related. Her blood tests came back negative but I gave her a shot of Narcan just in case. I suppose there could be some cardiovascular event but this is Wonder Woman we're talking about. She doesn't have atherosclerotic disease or get strokes."

"_Wonder Woman_ shouldn't get seizures and go into cardiac failure either," Vixen pointed out.

Jake nodded in concession. "We should still get an MRI to rule out…"

"No MRI," Batman interrupted. "The man who did this to her told me that it could kill her."

Vixen demanded, "What man? You know who did this?"

Jake raised his voice to drown out Vixen's and got a glare for his audacity. "How? I've never heard of MRIs causing death."

Batman shook his head. "A _'bloody mess'_ was all he would say."

"I don't get it. Wonder Woman doesn't have a pacemaker or any implanted metal clips. I would have known to take off her hairclip and earrings. No insulin pump or …"

"What did you say?"

"Well, I was just saying she doesn't have any insulin pump implants that would…"

"Before that."

"Uh…" Jake suddenly realized why every crook that came Batman's way spilled their guts to the Dark Knight. The force of that no-nonsense gaze focused centrally on him was extremely unnerving and even though the good doctor knew he had done nothing wrong, he still couldn't stop himself from babbling. "Uh… well… let's see… pacemaker, hairclip, metal implants…no, no, I said metal implants before hairclip…and then, I think I mentioned earrings…"

"You can stop now. He's gone."

Horrified, Jake looked at Vixen. "Was it something I said?"

"Probably." Vixen said unfeelingly before following Batman into the Infirmary. Jake saw Batman press a button turning the glass panes opaque. The doctor didn't know whether he should follow or not until he heard Vixen's screech.

"Batman! What are you doing? Why are you taking off Diana's clothes?"

* * *

"I never knew the notorious Joker was such a coward."

The subject of Malka al Ghul's derision snorted. "You better believe it. I never admitted I was courageous."

"I can give you a bigger cut if that's what you want."

He paused but then shook his head. "I'm going to hate myself tomorrow but I can't take your offer. No one knows him as well as I do and there's something about your plan that doesn't feel too… Bat-proof. Besides, the Joker is no one's bitch."

"And just what do you mean by that?"

"Let's just say I don't want to work with someone who's using me as bait to gauge her enemy's reaction."

"I guess he's not as stupid as he acts," Malka murmured as she looked at the Joker's departing figure.

"Well, he has been Batman's number one nemesis for many years. That's not an empty title, nor one easily claimed."

Malka turned to her bodyguard. "I think you give Batman too much credit."

"And I think you don't give him enough." The tall man fingered his cheek absently, causing his mistress to turn her attention to the cut there.

"If you're warning me not to underestimate Batman, why did you tell him about Wonder Woman and the MRI?"

"Why should you care? She's not the one you want."

"Don't play the fool in front of me, Sethar. You know she's not my target but her death will hurt Batman in a way that a bullet can't. Do you think he will have figured it out by now?"

Sethar nodded. "If he's the man rumors say he is, he should have."

"I suppose I should expect nothing less from the man who managed to kill Ra's al Ghul. Although if it weren't for you, we would have more time to implement the attacks," accused Malka.

"I'll make time for you. There is no need to take Wonder Woman's life."

"Again with that name! Why are you so obsessed with her?"

"Like you are obsessed with him?" Sethar countered.

"You don't understand."

"But I do. He managed to obtain what you have tried your whole life to achieve – the approval of your father. But the fact that he did it without any purposeful effort on his part should not condemn him."

Malka's face reddened with anger. "Spoken like a man. How can you understand what I've had to go through to carve a place for myself in a patriarchal society? How can you understand? You're just like the rest of them!" She was about to say more but stopped upon realizing that she was on the brink of tears. Malka bit her lip and changed the subject. "Tell me what you've done so far to situate the men."

_But I do understand. More than you will ever know._ Sethar thought to himself but he repressed the desire to voice the words out loud because he knew his mistress did not want anyone, even him, to see her cry. Her strength and vulnerability reminded him of another woman whose innocent life he had put in jeopardy but he quickly buried the instinctive sense of regret. He had his loyalties and he had done what he could to help Wonder Woman without outright betraying his mistress. The rest would have to depend on someone else.

_Let's see how good you really are, Batman._

_**Sorry everyone for the long delay in posting this chapter. I wouldn't be surprised if people had thought I'd abandoned this story - for a while there I thought I was going to. I had the worst writer's block ever because I've just been so stressed out with school and work that I didn't have the energy nor desire to write. I really am so very grateful for everyone who's read this story and left a review. If not for you guys, I would not have had the determination nor motivation to write this chapter. Reviewers are my best source of inspiration so please leave a note and let me know what you think!**_


	7. Puppet on a String

Disclaimer: Here's where I say I wish I owned the JLA characters, especially Batman, but if wishes were horses, I'd have a ranch and go riding every day.

**First Love** by chrryfiona

Chapter 7: Puppet on a String

She was like a feral animal, her eyes wide open with obvious fear even while she bared her teeth at him. Bruce continued to look steadily into her eyes as he walked toward the bed. Being a member of the Justice League which housed hundreds of meta-humans, Bruce was well aware of his limitations and thus took extra care to hone the abilities he had. Physical strength was highly overrated. Few of Batman's opponents, and even his closest allies, were aware that the Dark Knight's favorite weapons of choice were not his martial arts skills but rather his eyes and voice. They could intimidate the hardest criminals of Gotham City into surrendering before Batman himself had to raise a fist. The person in front of Bruce now, however, was not his foe but instead an innocent woman whose only crime was being friend to a man with too many enemies. His chest twisted at the direction of that thought and Bruce's fists tightened as he refocused his attention back to the task at hand.

"Diana." He kept his voice low and soothing. "Do you remember who I am? Can you tell me what happened?"

She didn't answer but pushed herself deeper into the bed, away from him. Her whimper made his heart skip a beat. Vixen had said Diana had not recognized her but at least had verbalized her fear. Bruce was running out of time. His hand was a blur as it moved across Diana's body. The woman on the bed, now naked from the waist up, threw her body toward him with rage and Bruce was grateful for the energy cufflinks imprisoning Wonder Woman to the bed. At that moment, an indignant female voice squawked behind him. "Batman! What are you doing? Why are you taking off Diana's clothes?"

"Point of entry. There has to be a point of entry." Bruce looked over Diana's now torn shirt carefully. Thank the powers that be, the shirt was white, highlighting the single barely noticeable spot of blood on the upper arm of the right sleeve. He fingered the corresponding area on Diana and palpated a small bump on an otherwise perfectly smooth skin.

Vixen was about to ask Batman what he meant when she was knocked off balance by Jacob. The good doctor had rushed into the room as soon as he had heard Vixen's scream but the scene in front of him caught him so unaware that he could not check his momentum. "Oh sweet Jesus, Mary, and Joseph." He sighed reverently.

"Vixen, I need you to contact the Atom. Tell him I said this is an emergency. Dr. Isaac, I need an X-Ray of Wonder Woman's arm and head."

Vixen heard the urgency in Batman's voice and knowing everything was on a need-to-know basis when it came to the Dark Knight, she turned to do his bidding only to bump into Jacob again. The man clearly had not heard a word Batman had said, his eyes glazed over as he gazed at Diana's bare chest.

"Wonder Woman." He murmured. "But no wonder bra. No bra at all."

"Dr. Isaac!" barked Vixen. "Control yourself. You're drooling on the floor." She gave him a disgusted push and steered him outside the Infirmary Room.

* * *

The X-ray showed exactly what Bruce had suspected. There was a pinpoint radiodense area corresponding to the bump on Diana's upper right arm. It shone bright as if there were a piece of metal there. 

Jacob eagerly pointed out the same radiodense findings on the X-ray of Diana's head. "This material, whatever it is, is spread pretty diffusely across her cortices."

"What about this spot here? Isn't it a little too far interior to be the cortex?" Vixen peered at the computer screen.

The doctor nodded approvingly at her question. "It's hard to identify brain structure on X-ray but I'd bet my Swiss bank account that if we were to do an MRI or CT, this particular area right here would be the hippocampi. These lesions explain Wonder Woman's behavior because they're occurring in the regions of the brain that are typically affected in schizophrenics. I've never seen such an acute and severe onset of schizophrenia before because usually this disease takes months to years before progressing to Wonder Woman's state. Without getting a biopsy of her brain, I have no idea what's causing these lesions."

"No need. I already know what they are." Batman said succinctly.

A voice on Batman's comm link prevented Jacob from asking the Dark Knight to explain himself. "Batman, I hope you've made some headway with Diana's illness because there've been a few incidents in Gotham that need your attention."

Bruce bit back a vulgar word. He felt like a marionette dancing to the whim of an invisible puppetmaster.

"Batman, are you there? Batman!"

Jacob and Vixen winced at the elevated volume. Clearly, the Man of Steel had yet to forgive Batman for hanging up on him earlier.

"I hear you, Superman. I'm not deaf and being cryptic is not your forte. What do you mean by 'incidents'?"

The voice on the other end sounded aggrieved and haggard. "Just 20 minutes ago two bombs went off in Gotham. It was Wayne Corp and Gotham Medical Center. I'm sor-"

"I'm on my way." Bruce grimly disconnected the link and turned toward Jacob. "Get Dr. Ray Palmer here now. He'll know what to do."

"But wait!" Jacob shouted to Batman's back. "What do I tell him is causing the lesions?"

"Nanobots."

_

* * *

__Father, I've failed you._

Bruce looked at the crumbled wreckage that used to be Thomas Wayne's workplace. Superman had mobilized some members of the Justice League to help carry injured victims to the community hospital at the other end of Gotham City. Bruce barely heard the wail of fire trucks in the background as men rushed out carrying hoses to douse the sporadic fires. Gotham Medical Center was completely razed to the ground, a pathetic remnant of the great glass structure it used to be. His father would have really liked the beautiful Pediatric Oncology wing which had just been added a few months ago through a generous donation from Wayne Corp but it too was now a mass of rubble.

"_And why do we fall, Bruce? Why do we fall?"_

"What's going on, Bruce? And don't give me that look either. These attacks were simultaneous and they were clearly targeting you."

Alfred's disembodied voice interrupted Superman. "Sir, the police are here. They want to question you regarding Mrs. Finch's disappearance. There was some blood found on the floor of her condo and it was overheard at the funeral today that she was supposed to meet you at Wayne Manor for dinner."

"Understood, Alfred. I'll be there as soon as I can."

"Very good, sir. Oh, and if you wouldn't mind calling your lawyer for me, sir. I've just used up the one phone call to which I'm allotted."

* * *

"Hold her down! You're a superhero, aren't you?" Jacob frantically filled a syringe.

Vixen glared at him even as she threw herself over Diana's struggling torso. "Bastard! This is Wonder Woman we're talking about. Are you ready yet?"

Later, Jacob would defend himself by saying he did not know what happened. All he knew was that one minute he was holding Wonder Woman's arm and the next minute, he was plunging the needle into Vixen's leg. Before he could apologize, Vixen was sent flying into the opposite wall. The crash combined with the benzodiazepine was too much for her and she remained slumped on the floor.

"Wait! You have to wake up. Don't leave me alone with her!" But Jacob realized his worries were for naught because when he timidly looked at the bed, he realized it was empty and his patient was nowhere to be seen. Elation was quickly replaced by horror.

He moaned. "Oh no! He's going to kill me."

_**I can't believe how long it's been since I posted. I'm a little ashamed of myself. The real world keeps intruding and well, you know how it goes. I hope those who've been reading my story are still interested and haven't given up on me totally. Please let me know what you think of this latest chapter, ok? **_


	8. Casualties of War

Disclaimer: Here's where I say I wish I owned the JLA characters, especially Batman, but if wishes were horses, I'd have a ranch and go riding every day.

**First Love** by chrryfiona

Chapter 8: Casualties of War

Superman disconnected his comm link. "That was Dr. Isaac. Long story short, Wonder Woman knocked him and Vixen unconscious and is now missing. They have some of the Justice League members looking for her right now. Damn it! I may have to leave you, Bruce. I don't think anyone in the Tower is a match for Wonder Woman."

Batman stared at him. "I specifically told him before I left to keep me updated on everything that's going on with Diana. Why would he contact you instead?"

"The man's probably afraid you would rip his head off."

"No." Bruce shook his head decisively. "The incompetent fool is lying about something."

"What? And you got that from a simple call? One that you didn't even hear yourself?" Superman's eyes widened in disbelief. "And they say Question is paranoid."

"If Isaac were truly rendered incapacitated by Diana, he knows I would never blame him for losing her. Vixen unconscious, I can believe. The doctor probably escaped with his tail behind his legs and is afraid I would chew him out for doing a piss-poor job of anesthetizing Diana. I wouldn't be surprised if he were somehow responsible for Vixen being knocked out."

"You were the one who hired him."

"And as soon as this is cleared, I'll be the one to fire him."

"Listen, Bruce. I meant what I said before. Whoever did this seems to be targeting you. Do you need me to …"

"Go. You're more help to me up in the Tower keeping an eye on Diana."

"What about calling GL or Flash back from their mission? I don't know where J'onn is right now but I'm sure he would return in a heartbeat if he knew you were in trouble."

Bruce looked at his friend steadily in the eyes.

"Uh… not trouble, trouble but uh… that you needed help… well… not help, help… but that you were having some … difficulties. Yeah, difficulties."

Silence.

The Man of Steel gave up. "Right then. I'll just be going."

"Clark." Bruce called out but paused for so long that Superman thought that was all the normally glib Batman was going to say. "She's never been afraid of anything before and I don't think she knows how to handle fear."

Clark nodded his head to acknowledge what his friend said and did not say.

* * *

"You know how this is going to end, right?" Huntress predicted gloomily, referring to the time when she, along with all of the women present, had had their asses handed to them on a silver platter by Wonder Woman. The Amazon princess had not been herself then either. She had been temporarily under the mind control of the money-hungry Roulette who had locked the Justice League women in a glass cage so that they would battle each other as a means of kinky entertainment for the bored rich and famous. Luckily Huntress and Black Canary had destroyed the controller right when Wonder Woman was about to slam Shayera and Vixen's heads together.

Vixen remembered that incident only too well and shuddered at how close she had come to having her brains scrambled. She glared with annoyance at Huntress for bringing up the subject in the first place. A mission may be impossible but morale must be maintained. "If you're too chicken, then say so. After all, you're not part of the Justice League anymore. You're under no obligation to do this."

Black Canary inserted herself between the two women before Huntress could respond in a more physical manner. "You're right, Vixen. Huntress is only here visiting Question and so as a _guest_ of the Justice League, she doesn't have to do anything but she offered her services. You know we need all the help we can get."

Shayera nodded. "Huntress has a point. Let's face it; we're no match for Wonder Woman. Under normal circumstances, that is. I think her delirium may work to our advantage."

"What do you mean?" Vixen asked.

"Well, you said Diana is not acting like herself, right? It makes sense then that she won't know where she is or …"

"Or how to get herself out either! That's right! She won't know where the Control Room is or how to transport herself down to Earth." Vixen finished excitedly as she realized where Shayera was going with her train of thought.

"O-kay… but the Watchtower is still pretty big." Black Canary pointed out. "Wonder Woman could be hiding anywhere."

"That's easy. She's in the Cafeteria."

Six pairs of eyes turned toward Huntress who had made the cavalier statement. The object of their attention rolled her eyes. "Think about it. If you've been tied up in the Infirmary all day and the last thing you had in your stomach was God-knows-how many shots of liquor, wouldn't you want to grab some food too? You don't even need to know the layout of this place. All you have to do is follow your nose." Huntress sniffed appreciatively. "Oh goody. They're having roast chicken and cranberry sauce today."

* * *

Hypoglycemia made her hands shake as she ripped the meat into thin strips before cramming them into her mouth. She had found a good hiding spot in the bustling kitchen. People rarely would think to look higher than the level of their own heads and nestled as she was on the topmost shelf of a cabinet holding very fine Waterford glassware, she was able to watch for potential predators. 

"_The most dangerous places can also be the safest."_ A masculine voice rumbled deeply in her ear.

She didn't know who the man was but she much preferred his calmness to the hisses and shrieks of the woman. Even though the voices had been her constant companions since she woke up in this strange place, she still had not yet grown used to hearing sounds with no visual source and quickly looked to her left and right to make sure there was no one by her side. Reassured that she was indeed alone, she tore off another strip from the chicken breast and dipped it into the pot holding the cranberry sauce. Her theft had caused a momentary stir in the kitchen but the frantic saucier had quickly and quietly made another batch rather than face the wrath of the short-tempered sous chef for being unable to explain the disappearance of an enormous pot of cranberries which had just been simmering on the stove.

Two women entering the kitchen drew her attention to the doorway. She didn't know who they were but she knew instinctively they were looking for her.

"The sous chef says he hasn't seen Wonder Woman." Black Canary reported. "We've checked out the entire Cafeteria. Maybe we should expand our search to the …"

Huntress shook her head and continued walking around the kitchen. "No, this is Wonder Woman we're talking about, remember? Just because no one has seen her doesn't mean she wasn't here." Raising her voice, Huntress asked "Has anybody noticed anything missing?"

When nobody answered, she sighed. "You're not in trouble. I just want to know if a plate of food or anything like that suddenly disappeared. Just things that you could have sworn was there one minute but was gone when you turned your back. This is very important so I suggest you just be honest. I promise you no one is going to blame you."

A tentative hand rose. "Well, uh… my cranberry sauce."

"What!? Phillips, you imbecile of a cook! Why didn't you tell me about this?"

Indignation warred with fear and won and the saucier retorted "Gee, Grenarde, why do you think?"

"Enough!" Huntress barked at the two men. "No harm, no foul, alright gentlemen?"

Impressed, Canary admitted "Okay, I'll grant you she was here. But what makes you think she didn't just grab the food and leave?"

"You remember how you kept saying I've become more paranoid since I started dating Question?" At Canary's nod, Huntress continued. "Well, I know for a fact that Wonder Woman's been hanging around Batman lately. And this is a guy who probably reads Sun Tzu's 'The Art of War' before bedtime."

"And?" Canary prompted impatiently. "Question has not only rubbed off some of his paranoia but apparently his obscurity as well. Just spit it out already."

Huntress smirked and refrained from commenting about Green Arrow's influence because that would just be too easy. Oliver Queen was not known for his patience or subtlety. Instead she quoted, " _'When we are near, we must make the enemy believe we are far away; when far away, we must make him believe...'_ "

"Uh, Helena, is it just me or do you also feel that prickling sensation down your neck?" The two women looked at each other and quickly stood back to back as they scanned the kitchen again. Canary tapped her comm link. "Ladies, everyone to the kitchen. Now!" She barely finished her sentence before she felt a sharp pain as her head connected with Huntress' and she almost welcomed the numbing blackness which followed.

* * *

"Welcome, Mrs. Finch. My name is Malka al Ghul. I don't believe we've ever been properly introduced. Your husband died before he could do so but under the circumstances, we can skip the formalities, don't you think?" 

Rachel groaned and tried to bring her aching arms to her side only to realize she couldn't because they were tied above her head so that she was left dangling by her wrists. She peered at the dark-haired woman standing in front of her. "What …?" She gagged as a sudden bout of nausea came over her.

"What do I want with you? Ah, I am sorry to say, you are just one of the many casualties in my war against Batman."

"He'll… come… for…me."

"Yes, that's what I'm counting on. He's too late, of course. The only question now is who will he save – you or the Amazon Princess?"

_Bruce, I need you. _But the sibilant voices came and drowned out Rachel's last coherent thought.

**_Sorry for the long wait between chapters, guys. Thanks to Darknight14, I just found out that Carl Finch died in the movie which basically makes this fanfic an AU. Ah well, the man ends up dying anyway, it was just a matter of timing. Of course this means I need to rewatch the movie to see how he died because I honestly don't remember. If anybody does, let me know. I only remember seeing him in one or two scenes in the beginning but that could be because I got too busy drooling over Christian Bale. As always, thanks to all my wonderful readers without whom I would not have the motivation to continue. Please tell me what you think of this latest update, ok?_**


	9. Fathers and Daughters

Disclaimer: Here's where I say I wish I owned the JLA characters, especially Batman, but if wishes were horses, I'd have a ranch and go riding every day.

**First Love** by chrryfiona

Chapter 9: Fathers and Daughters

"Tell me, Sethar, if you were Batman, what would you do? One is your ex-girlfriend and the other is your current one. Both are beautiful women in their own right. If you could only save one, who would it be?" Malka looked up teasingly at the man next to her.

Sethar shrugged. The question was deeply layered with hidden intents and until he was more certain of his mistress' motives, it would behoove him to be noncommittal. "That depends on a multitude of factors. Whom does Batman love more? Is he a man who clings onto the past or who lives in the present? Who would die first?"

"Oh, but Batman is an open book. I want to know whom _you_, Sethar, Fourteenth Bodyguard to the al Ghul family, would choose?"

The Fourteenth Bodyguard smiled inwardly. He should have known Malka had not forgotten the hint he had given Batman regarding Wonder Woman's condition. His mouth twisted slightly in bitterness. Her occasional demonstrations of jealousy only made it harder for him, especially in light of the fact that he was her servant. One day, she would marry a man befitting her rank and station. She knew that just as well as he did and although she had never said anything about her feelings for him, she always made him aware of her displeasure should he show the slightest indication of interest toward another woman. She might as well make him a eunuch because the thin line she was having him walk was just too painful. Sethar opted to change the subject. "You already know whom he loves more? How? I doubt even Batman himself knows."

"Whom he loves may play a part in his final decision but that's only one factor. And a minor one when you take into account everything else. The Dark Knight's every action is evidence of his inability to let go of the past. Rachel Finch was his childhood playmate and the first woman he's ever loved. That's not something anyone can forget so what makes you think Batman is an exception? Not to mention, Rachel is human and mortal. Even if Wonder Woman becomes deranged for the rest of her life, she will not die from the nanobots. The same cannot be said for Rachel. But I believe you've already thought of all that, am I right, Batman?"

The whistle of a batarang slicing through air molecules answered her. Malka quickly turned her eyes to follow the direction of the weapon but the damage had been done. Rachel Finch's body slumped to the ground, the rope holding her upright cut neatly across. Batman leapt down from the rafter and landed in front of Rachel. He reached for her but was prevented from his goal as he had to duck the tambo Malka swung at the back of his head. Two twists counterclockwise and a pull transformed the two-foot tambo to a 6-foot rokushakubo. The extra length gave the staff new momentum and although Batman raised his arms just in time to block its sweeping strike toward his chest, the suddenness of the attack and the awkwardness of his stance made him take a few steps back.

Sethar moved to put himself between his mistress and Batman but Malka waved him aside. "It's okay, Sethar. I want to take care of our guest myself. I hadn't expected you so soon, Batman. Very impressive. How did you know where to find her?"

They were in the basement of Wayne Tower where the old Applied Sciences Department used to be when Richard Earle had been in charge of Wayne Enterprise. Under Lucius Fox's leadership, the department had expanded so much that it now required its own separate building. The basement now was merely an extension of the Archives Department, as indicated by the symmetrical rows upon rows of file cabinets which housed records from 10 years and beyond.

"The most dangerous places can be the safest ones."

Malka smiled even as her eyes narrowed. "My father always did say you were his best student. As his protégé, however, I'm sure you've inherited not a small amount of his distrust of everyone around him. It was really too careless of me. I should have had Sethar check your girlfriend here for tracers." She walked toward Rachel's prone body and nudged her idly with the bo. Dispassionately, she pressed the staff down hard and twisted it until the other woman's moans turned into screams as she felt her right clavicle break.

"Tell me something, Batman. When did you put the tracer on her? Was it when she clung to you for comfort during her husband's funeral? Or was it at her apartment when you zipped up the merry widow's gown so lovingly after she came out of the bathroom? Does your lover here know you have such little faith in her loyalty that you had to track her every movement?"

Bruce clenched his teeth for a brief second before forcibly relaxing his jaw. _"Anger is nothing."_ A voice from the past reminded him.

"I see theatricality runs in your family. At least Ra's, despite being the madman that he was, claimed his actions stemmed from an idea of justice. Misguided though it may be. He would be so disappointed if he knew his children were dictated solely by petty vengeance and jealousy."

"How dare you say my father's name with such disrespect! You were an outsider and he treated you like a son. Better even than his own children!" Malka spat.

The callused but still very feminine hands gripped the bo as if they thought the metal staff was Batman's neck. The weapon twirled around her wrists and came flying in short jabs and wide swings toward the source of her hatred.

"And so it's my fault that he was a bad father to you?"

Block, parry.

"Or perhaps you resent the fact that my father gave me a Y chromosome and yours didn't?"

He flipped backward on his hands to dodge a particularly vicious attack to his head. "I hate to break it to you but it had nothing to do with lack of love and everything to do with pure random genetics that made you a girl instead of a boy. I'm sure Ra's cared for you very much." The Dark Knight said with mock pity. "Why don't I teach you what he taught me and we'll call it even?"

He could not have sounded more condescending than if he had actually patted her on the head and he got the exact response he was looking for. Malka had thought to corner him by driving him back toward the table where the Archive Manager would sit. In her anger, she never thought to question why Batman kept up a defensive front and had yet to launch any offense of his own.

"First lesson – always mind your surroundings."

The wheeled chair that he suddenly whipped at her was unexpected but she quickly stepped aside and hooked her staff into the loop of the armrest to immobilize it. The chair flipped over but Malka realized too late that its weight had also caused the staff itself to be temporarily incapacitated.

"You've sacrificed your footing for a killing stroke."

Even as she struggled to pull the bo loose, Batman had already leaped onto the staff, using it as a spring board for the roundhouse kick he delivered to her face. Her lip split and she reeled backward, losing her grip on the bo but managing just barely to catch her balance.

"Anger is nothing." He yanked the weapon free and whacked the back of her calves. Letting the staff continue its fluid momentum, he scooped her legs up from underneath her. Malka landed with a bone-jarring thud and by the time she recovered enough to look up, it wasn't Batman's face staring at her in the face but the lethal end of her bo.

"Will is everything."

* * *

"This is ridiculous. What the hell is taking that doctor so long? Are you telling me you can't defeat her? You're the Man of Steel, for crying out loud!"

"Diana's not herself!" Superman managed to glare at Huntress reproachfully even while ducking his head to dodge a kettle. His momentary inattention made him vulnerable to the cutting board flung toward his solar plexus like a boomerang with all the force of a Mack truck behind it. "Oof! Knowing that, how can I, in all good conscience, fight her with everything I've got when I may end up hurting her?"

"Men! You always think of females as the weaker sex." Huntress said disgustedly and rubbed her skull painfully at the spot where she had been been forcibly rammed against Black Canary's head. The topic of their discussion while being undeniably female was clearly not weak. Diana had managed to throw off the body slam that consisted of Vixen imbued with the strength of an elephant by flipping the darker woman over her head. Vixen hit the shelves holding the Waterford glassware and fell to the floor cursing. The broken shards of crystals rained down her body scattering little bloody nicks here and there on the areas of her skin unprotected by clothing.

With one of the kitchen's exit points now unguarded, Diana ignored her fallen opponent and ran toward freedom. Her headlong dash was abruptly halted by a sonic scream emitted from Canary. Diana clapped her hands to protect her eardrums but she could do nothing about the migraine that was starting to form behind her eye sockets. She was also starting to lose her footing as the sonic waves began to push her back toward the center of the kitchen.

"Stop it. Stop it." Diana mouthed soundlessly, glaring at the source of her pain. The blonde woman was turning pale but showing no sign of running out of breath within the next 20 seconds and Diana didn't think she'd be able to last for even five seconds more. Her head already felt as if it were about to split open like a ripe melon. She glanced quickly at her surrounding for available weapons and spied a crystal goblet holding candied almonds. She grabbed the goblet with one hand and with the other, proceeded to throw every kitchen utensil within her reach at Canary. Dinah's self-preservation instincts were too strong and when a cleaver came alarmingly close, she paused in mid-scream to roll out of harm's way. Thinking to resume her sonar attack, Dinah opened her mouth only to cough and gasp for breath as a small object hit the back of her palate.

The Amazon princess grinned triumphantly, tossing one of the candied almonds into her own mouth. She continued to walk toward the door when she felt a prick behind her right shoulder. Contorting her arm, she reached around for the culprit and pulled out a small dart.

Huntress lowered her crossbow. Whispering out of the corner of her mouth, she asked, "Why isn't she going down yet?"

"Maybe you didn't put in enough anesthetic?" Superman suggested.

"It's not like there's a guideline for sedating superheroes, you know. Especially one enhanced with strength from the Greek gods." Dr. Isaac retorted with indignation. "But," he mumbled, "I did put enough ketamine in there to bring down a 1000 lb horse."

Huntress turned to look at him in disbelief. "You gave me a horse tranquilizer dart to shoot at Wonder Woman?"

Jake opened his mouth but only an undignified squawk came out as he caught sight of a 5'11'' tower of Amazon psychotic fury running toward him and showing no signs of stopping. It was one of those horrible gut-dropping moments where Jake knew what was going to happen but couldn't do anything to prevent it. The doctor covered his head reflexively in protection and braced himself for the inevitable. He had counted to 14 before he realized he was still in full possession of all his limbs. Equally as important was the fact that he was experiencing no pain whatsoever. He lowered his arms from his face and saw Superman standing in front of him protectively. Wonder Woman, however, was lying on the ground tied up by her own lasso, the end of which was held by Hawkgirl.

A tall man with dark wavy hair and a goatee hunched down to Wonder Woman's level and peered at her face. Satisfied that she was unconscious, he smirked at Shayera.

"You're welcome." He prompted.

"Bite me, Hades."

_**Whew! Who knew this chapter was so hard to write? I swear I had half of it finished before Christmas but for some reason, I got stuck with writer's block for the rest. I knew what I wanted to have happen but I couldn't seem to find the words to describe it. Anyway, I hope you guys enjoy this update. Please drop a review and tell me what you think if only to let me know you're reading still.**_


	10. The Other Players

Disclaimer: Here's where I say I wish I owned the JLA characters, especially Batman, but if wishes were horses, I'd have a ranch and go riding every day.

**First Love** by chrryfiona

Chapter 10: The Other Players

"Don't even think about it." Batman warned Sethar just as the other man made a move toward his mistress.

"He's bluffing, Sethar. He doesn't have the guts to do anything to me." Malka challenged confidently despite the menacing weapon held just inches above her forehead.

Without warning, Batman hooked the bo under Malka's elbow, forcing her to lean forward to ease the pressure exerted on her arm.

"Compassion is a weakness your enemies will not share." He quoted before slamming Malka facedown on the floor while keeping her arm in its elevated state. A pop was heard followed by Malka's scream of pain.

"Bastard! Bastard! You son of a b…"

"Now that you know I'm not bluffing, are you going to give me the antidote or shall I continue to prove to you how gutsy I really am?"

"She doesn't have the antidote." Sethar raised his right hand with the diamond ring on his pinky finger. "I do."

"So that's what you used to cut Wonder Woman's arm and inoculate her with the nanobots. Let me guess, the jewel has the dual advantage of being hard enough to cut through her skin as well as being stable enough to prevent the nanobots from escaping. Is that why you had the Joker steal all those diamonds?"

Sethar nodded. "I had my doubts when Ra's said you were quite the detective. I thought his defeat at your hands had exaggerated his opinions of you. I can see now that the rumors did not do enough justice to the actual man. Unfortunately, there is nothing your skills of investigation can do this time. The nanobots are self-replicating. I only need to administer a small amount to do the greatest harm. The cure, however, is not so simple. I have only enough nanobots carrying the virus strain to treat one person."

Batman's eyes narrowed. "Why should I believe you? You don't think I know your mistress here wants to play mindfuck with me by targeting the people in my life? Her attempts are so amateurishly obvious, they're pathetic."

"You're right. You have no reason to believe anything I say. I will remind you that I didn't have to tell you about not using the MRI on Wonder Woman. As for making you choose between which woman to save, I am sorry to say, that choice is not up to you anymore. The nanobots are engineered to replicate by binary fission, like bacteria. They have a generation time of 60 minutes. I inoculated Wonder Woman over 10 hours ago. Because Wonder Woman is who she is, we've made the inoculation dose 10 times stronger than usual so when I scratched her, I delivered about 100 nanobots into her blood stream. Taking into consideration the elapsed time, she must have over 100 thousand in her body by now. As expensive and dangerous as these things are, you must believe me when I say we don't carry that many on hand at any one time."

Expressionless, the Dark Knight looked at Sethar. The Fourteenth Bodyguard knew his confession would not be well received but he didn't know what to make of this unnerving silence.

"Put the ring on the ground and roll it over here."

"What do …"

Batman slid the bo behind Malka's other elbow and raised it. "Shall I dislocate this shoulder too? Or perhaps you'd like me to break every bone in her arm?"

Sethar bit his lip but recognizing the situation, he removed the ring and rolled it toward the man holding his mistress captive. Batman stopped the momentum of the ring with his boot. Picking it up with one hand, he turned it this way and that. There were two tiny marks on the underbelly of the ring, one in the form of an 'X' and the other an 'O'. As he ran a finger along the surface, he noticed the 'X' was more prominent, giving it easier access.

"I take it the 'X' delivers the poison and the 'O' the antidote?"

Sethar nodded. "You have the ring. Now let my mistress go."

"I will. Once you get more antidote for me."

"But I already told you…"

"You're a resourceful man. I'm sure you can do anything, given the right motivation. And believe me when I say I will provide you with that. You have three hours. If I don't have enough viral nanobots to cure Wonder Woman in three hours, guess who else is going to share her fate?"

Malka swore at him but the pain from her dislocated shoulder reminded her not to move. "You have no idea who you're dealing with. Do you think I'm the only player in this game? You'll be sorry and it will be too …"

She suddenly felt fingers pressing on either side of her neck. They were the last things her consciousness registered before her vision narrowed to two pinpoints and darkness overwhelmed her.

Batman picked Malka up and carried her over to where Rachel lay. He tapped the comm link on his belt. "Watch Tower. Three to transport."

"I don't believe you. I don't believe Gotham's hero would be that cruel!"

Dark eyes stared coldly back at him. "Wouldn't I?"

Staring at the empty spot where Batman and his mistress used to be, Sethar whispered desperately, "No, you wouldn't be that cruel… you can't be that cruel."

"You have no idea what Batman is capable of."

"Lady Talia!" Sethar's heart thumped furiously. He had known from the beginning that Malka's plan was flawed but his love and loyalty had demanded that he cling onto some hope. Not even a glimmer remained of that hope now.

"Just like my sister had no idea what I'm capable of when she stole my nanobots." Red lips curved into a mirthless smile. "But she will."

* * *

"What do you mean you can't do anything? You're a god, for God's sakes!"

Hades raised a black eyebrow at Huntress.

She raised a hand to stop him. "Yeah, yeah. I know how that sounded. What I'm trying to say is what's the point of having all that divine power if you can't use it to save your own daughter?"

"You mean the person he _claims_ is his daughter." Shayera corrected.

"Need I point out the resemblance between the two of us?"

Shayera shrugged. "So you have black hair and she has black hair. Whoop-dee-doo."

"So how do you explain her coloring when Hippolyta, her mother, is a natural blond? And believe me, I should know."

"You're disgusting."

"No need to be jealous, little one. I've always had a soft spot for redheads."

"You…"

"Besides, it's over between Hippolyta and me. She is my past. You are my present."

Anger momentarily robbing her of any coherent speech, Shayera raised up her mace.

"That's enough!" Superman interrupted. "Hawkgirl, fighting amongst ourselves is not helping. And Hades, if you're really Diana's father, you would do better to focus on her and contribute something substantial rather than antagonize people who are trying to save your daughter."

"Superman," the disembodied voice of the Atom, also known amongst his professional colleagues as renowned physicist Dr. Ray Palmer, called out over the intercom. "Can you come down to the lab? I've finished analyzing Wonder Woman's blood."

"I'll be right over, Ray." Superman followed Shayera and Huntress out the room but noticing Hades' absence, he paused and turned back. The god was staring pensively at Wonder Woman's unconscious body through the glass window of the Infirmary.

"Aren't you coming?"

Hades shook his head. Without looking up, he said, "Someone should stay and watch over her in case she wakes up. Besides, it's better if I not test the patience of a certain redhead anymore today."

Superman nodded in agreement. "Let me know if anything happens."

Only until he was alone did the god of the Underworld let out a sigh. He entered the Infirmary and placed his hand on Diana's forehead. Emotions rushed from her mind and slammed into his. Pain. Confusion. Helplessness. Loneliness. But most devastating of all was fear. Its presence didn't surprise him but he did not expect there to be so much of it - so much and so uncontrolled that her mind was almost crippled by it.

_Blood of my blood but not flesh of my flesh. You have always been proof of my weakness but now I am the cause of your suffering. What am I to do with you?_

A melodious laugh came from behind him. "So tell me, dear husband. How does it feel to be the one to introduce fear to the once intrepid Princess of the Amazons?

_**Wow, it's been a while since my last update. Thank you everyone who've written to show me your interest and support. Work has been crazy busy and it will probably continue to be crazy busy for the rest of this year but I promise I won't abandon this story. Send me a review and tell me what you think!**_


	11. Choices

Disclaimer: Here's where I say I wish I owned the JLA characters, especially Batman, but if wishes were horses, I'd have a ranch and go riding every day.

**First Love** by chrryfiona

Chapter 11: Choices

"Where's Hades?" Shayera asked Superman.

"He said he wanted to stay back and watch Diana."

"Are you nuts? How can you trust him so easily? We don't even know why he's here in the first place!" The Thanagarian woman shook her head in disgust and stalked back to the Infirmary.

Superman glanced at Huntress with pleading eyes.

"Yeah, yeah. I'll babysit the two of them." She responded before running after Hawkgirl.

Superman sighed. He pinched the area between his brows in frustration. There were some days where he'd rather be off fighting the bad guys than deal with certain members of the Justice League.

"Damn you, Bruce. Where are you when I need you?" Clark muttered.

"Looking for me?" Batman had let the medical team take Rachel and Malka and was about to go with them to the Infirmary when he heard that the Atom was looking for him. Suppressing his desire to check up on Diana, the Dark Knight headed down toward the lab when he came across Superman. Without a pause in his stride, he continued past his friend.

"There you are! What hap…"

"Later."

"Batman, hey! Wait up! You know I hate it when you act all enigmatic."

* * *

Hades untangled the slender arms wrapped around his neck. He turned around and stared clinically at the beautiful blond woman in front of him. Even if she had not spoken, he would have known who she was. _Persephone._ As the former goddess of spring, she always carried the special fragrance of flowers freshly bloomed. No perfume in the world could capture that particular scent and her time in the Underworld had not dimmed that aspect of her power. Once upon a time, he had loved her, loved her as he had loved no other before or since. His desire to have her by his side had been so urgent and great that he had sacrificed his ambitions and promised Zeus the unthinkable. Hades was younger but the wily king of the gods knew better than to underestimate his little brother. The god of the Underworld had never shown any weaknesses before but his love for Persephone proved to be the proverbial chink in his armor. Zeus had gleefully taken full advantage of that leverage. If Hades hadn't kept his wits about him and tricked Persephone into eating those six pomegranate seeds, he wouldn't have even been able to keep her those six months out of the year – sacrifice or no sacrifice. 

_Be careful what you wish for. _The god grimaced in self-disgust because the most appalling truth was that, despite the bitterness of disappointment accumulated through the years they've been together, Hades still could not look at Persephone without remembering how he felt about her when they first met. Eros' arrow hit too deep and true. He sighed. His queen. His wife. His love. The bitch.

"Don't give me that look, husband. You've always wanted me to be the little devoted wife and now that I'm doing just that, you run away."

"Spying on me is hardly an act of devotion, _wife_."

"I just want to make sure you don't do anything sentimental like cure your daughter only to forfeit our bet."

Hades snorted. "And you care because? We both know you would do anything to win."

Persephone trailed a sharp fingernail down Hades' cheek. She tilted her head to kiss him only to have him pull away at the last second. Her eyes narrowed at the rejection.

"You think you know me so well? Well, then you should know that as much as I want to win, I also want to show you there is nothing special about your_daughter_. Stripped of her powers, she is no better than any other mortal."

"By underestimating her, you are underestimating me. Do you think anything I created can be so flawed? Her will is strong. She is not afraid of …"

Persephone laughed mockingly. "Ah, but she is. You felt it when you touched her. Her will may have been strong before but that was because she has never been introduced to loneliness, to doubt. She is beloved by the gods. Hera gives her strength when she asks for it in battle. She grew up worshiped and respected by her Amazon sisters. Even when Hippolyta banished her from Themiscyra, she still had a home and friends among the Justice League. A smith always tests his newly crafted sword against the anvil to make sure it stands true before making any claims about its strength. How can you say your clay doll is strong when the creature has never been tested? I knew you were prideful, my husband, but I never pegged you for blind or foolish. And yet, when it comes to this toy of yours, you are both."

"And I never pegged you as one to possess motherly inclinations. You've never wanted a child in all the centuries we've been together. Why now?"

Persephone turned away from him. She pressed a fist to her abdomen. "Do you know what the other gods call us? The childless couple. Childless! And me, goddess of a season which brings growth and fertility to the earth!"

Hades stared at her. Of course he knew of the names his brothers and sisters on Olympus called him and he was by no means indifferent to their insults but he never realized Persephone cared one way or the other. She hated him and had always done so since he kidnapped her. She submitted to him in bed but that was as far as her acceptance went. Eventually, even her beauty and his love could not tempt him enough to brave her coldness. The adage about sleeping with a corpse perfectly described Hades' relationship with his wife. And after their marriage, she had basically turned her back on the Olympian gods, especially Zeus and her mother, whom she felt had abandoned her when she needed them most. Her angry outburst took Hades completely by surprise.

"But you despise me! I never claim to understand you but I do know your feelings for me aren't those of a loving spouse. Why should you want to carry my seed? If you so desperately want a child, what's preventing you from having one with someone else? Infidelity runs in both our …"

"Ah… wedded bliss," interrupted Shayera.

Huntress nodded in agreement. "I don't know about you but seeing them so lovey dovey almost makes me want to fly to Las Vegas and get myself married by an Elvis impersonator. Almost."

* * *

"There's an antidote? That's great! Why haven't you given it to Diana yet?" 

"It's not that simple." Batman told Vixen.

"What do you mean?" Vixen's voice rose with every word. "Do you know how long those things have been in her body? The Atom says they're dividing every hour! Who knows how long…"

"I've already given the antidote to someone else."

Batman's statement was greeted with momentary silence before Vixen launched herself at the Dark Knight. Superman quickly wrapped an arm around her waist to hold her back.

"You bastard! She was depending on you! Let me go, Superman!"

"Enough! Vixen, calm down. Batman, explain."

"There's nothing to explain. I had to make a choice and I made one." Bruce said simply and turned to the Atom. "Robert, I want you to take a look at this ring. It contains the same nanobots that infected Wonder Woman. The antidote is based on a virus which causes the nanobots to turn on their own kind, like an autoimmune reaction. Is there any way we can reprogram these nanobots to carry the virus?"

His fingers flying across the keyboard, the Atom pulled up a file on his computer. "That's an interesting idea you've got there, Batman. This is a project I was working on with a colleague a few months ago. We were studying the recent rise in certain strains of _Mycobacterium tuberculosis_ which do not respond to isoniazid and rifampin, the two drugs previously effective against TB. Our project basically builds on the concept of bacteriophages, which are viruses that infect bacteria. With the right genome, bacteriophages are even more effective than the current antibiotics because they can grow and evolve in the same way bacteria grow and evolve. Because of this arms race, there's less chance of a bacteria strain developing sustained resistance, unlike what we see in antibiotics which are static and therefore unable to adapt. It won't take me long to create a virus to infect these nanobots but it will take me a while to grow enough reprogrammed nanobots to cure Wonder Woman."

"Are you saying you need a host?" Vixen asked in disbelief.

"You've got one." Bruce removed his gloves and sliced Sethar's ring across his palm.

_**I didn't mean to take so long with this update but I had the biggest writer's block. I was looking back at my earlier chapters and realized it's been almost two years since I first started writing this story as a birthday gift to myself! Hopefully, I'll be able to finish it before my next b-day. As always, thank you so much to everyone who's read my little fanfic. Your comments really motivate me to keep going. **_


	12. Gifts from the Gods

Disclaimer: Here's where I say I wish I owned the JLA characters, especially Batman, but if wishes were horses, I'd have a ranch and go riding every day

Disclaimer: Here's where I say I wish I owned the JLA characters, especially Batman, but if wishes were horses, I'd have a ranch and go riding every day.

**First Love** by chrryfiona

Chapter 12: Gifts from the Gods

"The idiot."

"I can't believe he did that. The Batman I know is so logical. This goes against everything he embodies."

"I believe the key word here, Atom, is 'logical.' There is nothing logical about love."

"Bull!" Vixen refuted Shayera's argument. "The bastard knew he was wrong when he gave the antidote to someone else and he just couldn't take the guilt anymore." She nodded in confirmation at the Thanagarian's surprised look. "You're lucky. You missed his whole 'I had to make a choice' speech. You would have wanted to hit him. _I_ wanted to hit him. I still do."

"The idiot." Superman repeated for the 29th time since Batman injected himself with the nanobots.

Huntress turned to him in annoyance. "Could you stop that? It's very disturbing when the leader of the Justice League mutters the same words to himself over and over again. And not just disturbing in the let's-take-him-to Arkham-Asylum kind of way but also the nails-running-down-the-chalkboard kind too."

Black Canary sighed and tuned out the bickering around her. It was harmless really. As powerful as the personalities who made up the Justice League were, at heart, they were still humans, with all the typical emotions and flaws. Put any group of people together and it was just a matter of time before a fight or an argument occurred. And when you combine that with the stress of seeing a friend and teammate hurt, well…let's just say, grace in the face of helplessness is not something the JLA is known for.

"How long will it take before there are enough altered nanobots to cure Diana?" Hades asked Atom.

"Two hours at the most. I've also added a code line to enhance the nanobots' replication rate but I had to balance that with what I thought Batman's body would be able to handle. Although the virus I created is programmed to attack only the bad nanobots, it basically relies on the electrical energy released by the host in order to replicate itself. Batman is not metahuman so there are limitations. Probably the ideal host would be Flash or Superman because they have such a high metabolism."

"Surely a man known for his deductive reasoning and intellect would have realized that." Persephone tsked. "I guess in Batman's case, the rumors really do exaggerate the man."

Clark pulled his eyes away from the Infirmary bed where his friend lay hooked up to an IV and monitor to glare at the golden-haired goddess. The recent events had made him tense and worried because he still had neither name nor face to attach to the enemy. His concern had taken the form of verbal abuse toward Bruce but Clark knew exactly why his friend did what he did. Batman was not a man given to rash actions. Stress had the reverse effect on him; in other people, it created panic but in Batman, it only made him calmer and his deductive reasoning keener.

"You underestimate Batman if you think he would do anything without first eliminating all possibilities. Flash is off-site on a mission. I'm clearly the next best host but if something were to go wrong, it's harder to incapacitate a schizophrenic Superman. Batman knew he could rely on me to make sure neither he nor Wonder Woman would do anything they might later regret. And being the _man_ he is, he would rather sacrifice himself before putting any of his other teammates' lives at risk. "

Shayera tapped a finger against her cheek thoughtfully as she examined Persephone from head to toe. "Hmm…I guess in your case, the rumors have not exaggerated the goddess. Blonde hair. Big breasts. No brains."

Anger distorted Persephone's smooth-lined forehead and curled her mouth into a sneer. "You forget who you're talking to, mortal. Do you think a stupid girl like you can take on a goddess? I can shred your wings as if they were that of a fragile butterfly. I can maim that pretty face in such a way that you would rather tear out your eyes rather than see your own ugliness. I can rip your arms and legs off until only the head and trunk remain so that you would be bedridden for the rest of your life. Every breath you take would only be in anticipation of the day you could die and end your miserable existence. Shall I tell you what else I can do or would you rather I just show you instead?"

Her mace swinging easily in one hand, Shayera said menacingly, "Talk is so cheap."

Persephone stepped forward only to be blocked by Hades. The god of the Underworld looked down at his wife and smiled coldly. "You know, they really aren't idle threats. She can actually do all of those things. However, as a _guest_ in my daughter's house, my wife knows better than to behave like an ill-mannered fishwoman. Am I right, my queen?"

Taking Hades' words for the threat that they were, Persephone turned to the insolent mortal who dared to challenge her. "Another time, another place." The goddess promised as she snapped her fingers and disappeared.

"Should I hold my breath?" Shayera asked Huntress.

The other woman shook her head. "Nah."

"Red, you've just caused me a lot of trouble." Hades flipped a small object at Shayera which she caught mid-air. "Take care of my daughter. If you need me, call my name."

Staring bemusedly at the spot Hades had just occupied a second ago, Shayera almost forgot to examine the object in her hand. It turned out to be a silver coin with the profile of a man remarkably like Hades on one side and the word "Αδης" on the other side.

Black Canary peered at it. "Oh, it's an obolus."

"Is that supposed to mean something to the rest of us ignorant folks?" Huntress demanded.

"It's one of those silver coins that the Greeks used to put over the eyes or under the tongue of their dead as a gift to Charon so that he would row the spirits across the river Styx. Cool, huh?"

"So it's real? How much do you think it's worth?"

"A gift from the gods. You lucky girl, you." Vixen patted Shayera on the back.

A strangled sound came from the Thanagarian warrior's throat as she thrusted the obolus as far away from her as possible. "Ugh… does anyone else besides me think this coin is creepy and disgusting?"

* * *

"If I had known you were this incompetent, I would have bestowed my gift onto someone else more deserving." Persephone snapped.

Only the slight thinning of her lips betrayed Talia's anger. Coming from a patriarchal family such as hers, she had to work doubly hard to garner her father's attention and thus she understood why Malka did what she did. On the other hand, failure was not a word in Talia's vocabulary. Malka's ambitions had prompted her to steal the nanobots from her very own sister and in the process had caused a setback in Talia's plans. Not to mention being called "incompetent" by a goddess not of her own religion. This latter insult was intolerable. Malka was going to pay and the fact that the same blood flowed through both of their veins mattered little.

"I can still carry out my half of the bargain, Your Majesty."

"Did you not hear what I've been telling you? The Justice League have already concocted a cure! It will only be a matter of hours before Wonder Woman is back to normal."

"Will she? Your Majesty, do you know why Batman chose the bat as his emblem? What would you say if I told you the Dark Knight is afraid of bats?" Talia smiled confidently and looked over at the rows of blue flowers growing under UV light. The climate and soil in Gotham were not ideal for these plants but Persephone was not a goddess of spring for nothing. In order to continue reaping such benefits, Talia was willing to do whatever it took.

"Fears are never truly conquered. We can embrace them and delude ourselves that by accepting their existence, we've defeated the things which terrorize us but nightmares are not so easily banished."

"I hope you are right. For your sake." Persephone said as she passed a hand over one of the pots. The flowers instantly wilted, its color blackening in death. "And your father's."

"You already promised!" The mortal woman protested.

"And you promised me Wonder Woman. Tit for tat. This is a common saying among you humans, is it not? The River Styx is not going to go anywhere." She tapped a fingernail thoughtfully against her cheek. "I wonder though what your father will say when the water in his Lazarus Pit dries up. His temper hasn't been very good lately, has it?"

The goddess' cruel laughter echoed in the room long after she disappeared, leaving Talia to curse her sister for putting her in this predicament. Oh yes, Malka was going to pay.

**_As always, thanks so much to everyone who's read this story and kept with me despite the long wait in between chapters. I appreciate and treasure your patience and reviews more than I can say._**


	13. Ties That Bind

Disclaimer: Here's where I say I wish I owned the JLA characters, especially Batman, but if wishes were horses, I'd have a ranch and go riding every day.

**First Love** by chrryfiona

Chapter 13: Ties That Bind

The dark haired woman looked at the cafeteria entrance with both longing and dread. Her stomach was growling and she could smell shepherd's pie being served but hunger took second place when she knew that every eye in the room would be watching her, noting how different she was from the person they knew from before.

"_You are you. It doesn't matter who people think you are or how they believe you should behave." _A calm masculine voice reminded her. The voice belonged to a man she only knew as Bruce. His was the first face she had seen when she opened her eyes a couple of weeks ago but it wasn't the first sound she had heard. The voices that woke her were not as soothing.

"_Why isn't it working?"_

_Atom tightened his lips in annoyance but did not deign to respond._

"_Will you leave the man alone? He's doing the best he can."_

"_Why are you being so defensive? I wasn't asking you. We all know how incompetent you are."_

"_I already told you. I had to make an educated guess on the ketamine dose. It's not like the pharmaceutical companies have a line written specifically for metahumans, you know._

_Atom's facial muscle began to twitch. Vixen and Dr. Isaac had been at each other's throat since he had injected the curative nanobots in Wonder Woman, a matter he would not have cared about if they had not decided to follow him around as well. Their arguments were becoming repetitive. It always started with Vixen demanding why Wonder Woman hadn't woken up and then it deteriorated to her taking potshots at Isaac and the latter defending himself rather ineffectually. Atom really didn't know why the man even bothered because the score must be something like Vixen 97, Isaac 0._

"_Educated? Hah! More like blind."_

"_I wasn't the one who took Wonder Woman to a bar and got her drunk."_

"_I didn't get her drunk. You ..."_

"_Enough! Out, out! The both of you. I don't want to see you back here until I call for you."_

"_But it's his …"_

"_Vixen." Atom took a deep breath. "Do you want to be the one to wake Batman up before Wonder Woman has come out of her coma? Because if you do, then please feel free to continue acting like Shakespeare's shrew. And you, Dr. Isaac. For the love of God, man, be the professional that your medical degree says you are or I should be ashamed to call you "doctor" at all."_

She remembered she had been hiding in the dark, trying to escape the hateful whispers and sibilant hisses which were telling her to do things. Violent things. And for a while, she thought she was alone but then these new voices kept nagging at her consciousness like persistent gnats flying into her face. They were so noisy! She shook her head as if to chase the memories away and gasped when a hand suddenly landed on her shoulder.

"Diana? Are you okay?"

She looked up and saw a beautiful slender woman with skin the color of that lovely sweet drink Bruce brought her yesterday. What was it again? Oh yes. Iced mocha.

"I'm sorry. You are…?" That was another thing that she noticed ever since she woke up. She did not know anyone's name and had trouble recalling it even though she had just been introduced to the person an hour ago. Funny how she had no trouble remembering Bruce's though.

"Vixen. Don't you remember?"

She bit down an angry reply. She hated that she couldn't remember people's names but she hated it even more when those people became impatient with her for not remembering. Did they think she wanted to be like this? She took a deep breath and began to count. She knew that she couldn't lose her temper because the last time she did that, she had crushed every bone in a man's hand. A man who was dressed in white and told her he was there to "help" her but then proceeded to ask her silly questions to which she had no answer. As her "I don't know" became more and more repetitive, her frustration grew and with the rise in her emotions, the sibilant hisses returned to the forefront of her brain. They mocked and taunted her ignorance because what person doesn't even know her own name or where she came from? She reached out to silence them but realized belatedly that she was squeezing the hand of the man in white instead. Bruce had had to pry her fingers off and she had apologized repeatedly but the harm had already been done. The man was taken away and now he ran every time he saw her. Bruce had said it wasn't her fault but she needed to be aware that she was very strong and that she could hurt people if she wasn't careful. She had seen the sad look in his eyes and promised him that she would try to control her temper. She was scared at the harm she could do to other people but she was even more afraid of the voices returning. She knew the voices were always with her but if she made a conscious effort to suppress them, they dulled to the recesses of her mind. She never told Bruce about them because she did not want him to run away from her like the doctor did.

"Yes, of course. I watched you spar with Bruce yesterday."

Bruce had originally wanted her to spar with him but she kept on refusing. She had seen him fight with other people and she knew it would take all of her efforts to even hit him. She didn't refuse him because she thought she would accidentally hurt him but how could she tell him it was when she was most violent that the voices would return full force? And so she had put him off by telling him she didn't think she was ready and Bruce, for whatever reason, had only looked at her thoughtfully but did not push her.

"Come on. I was supposed to meet Huntress for lunch but I ran a little late. She's probably inside already."

Diana groaned inwardly but followed Venus into the cafeteria. Maybe if she just kept putting food in her mouth, the others wouldn't expect her to talk as much. And maybe, just maybe, if she closed her eyes and pretended not to see anyone, people wouldn't see her either.

"Vixen, Diana! Over here!" Huntress waved them over to a table already occupied by her and Canary.

Or not. Lunch was going to be loads of fun, she could tell already.

*******

"Bruce, I have to return to Gotham. My business needs me."

"Fine. I'll transport you back."

"Dammit, Bruce!"

Bruce did not answer her but instead fiddled with the controls in front of him. He had been on monitor duty when Rachel finally cornered him. She had been trying to convince him to return to Gotham for the past week but he had always had a ready excuse for her. Her patience was wearing thin and while he agreed with her logic, he found himself, for the first time in his life, reluctant to return to his city. Diana might have woken up from her coma but she was far from being completely well. There were moments where she seemed distracted. Granted, those moments where he found her talking to herself were becoming less and less but she was no longer the intrepid Amazon princess he knew when they first met. She refused to spar with anyone ever since she unwittingly crushed Dr. Isaac's hand during one of their sessions. And Bruce sensed instinctively that there was something she wasn't telling him.

Rachel took a deep breath. "Will you please look at me?" When his eyes met hers, she continued. "I can't go back there alone. You know that! The League of Shadows is still out there and they'll be looking for me."

"And that's why I can't leave yet. I still need to interrogate Malka al Ghul."

"She's secure here. Let the Justice League interrogate her, if necessary. Gotham needs you now. Wayne Enterprise needs you. Or did you forget that Wayne Corp and the Medical Center were just bombed? Not to mention Alfred is still under suspicion for my disappearance."

"I've already sent my lawyers to get Alfred out."

"On bail! The man's been under house arrest for almost a week. I have to make an appearance to clear his name. And yours too, for that matter. Does Alfred no longer mean anything to you? Regardless of what you say, I know you're still here because of Wonder Woman. But Gotham needs you more than she does right now. Who knows how long it will take for Wonder Woman to fully recover? In the meantime, are you willing to let the League of Shadows destroy Gotham City like they destroyed Rome? Bruce, don't you care about your father's legacy anymore?"

"_Did you build this train, Dad?"_

"_Gotham's been good to our family but the city's been enduring very hard times. So we built a new, cheap, public transportation system to unite the city. And at the center… Wayne Tower."_

"_Is that where you work?"_

"_No, I work at the hospital."_

"Enough." Batman said quietly. "I'll return with you to Gotham."

*******

"Malka. Oh, Maaalkaaa, wakey wakey!"

Malka groaned as a hand shook her shoulder. It was the one Batman had dislocated and although it had been set, having someone shake it was not helping. Shards of needles shot down her arm. The hand was relentless.

"Wha-… who is it?"

"I'm hurt. After all that effort to poison me and you don't remember who I am?"

Malka wiped the sleep from her eyes. A tall black haired woman stood by her bed. "Wonder Woman? What do you want?"

"Oh goody. You remember me after all. I know we didn't get off to such a great start – you trying to kill me and all – but I thought maybe we could be friends. Let bygones be bygones and all that blah blah blah."

"I find that hard to believe."

Wonder Woman laughed. "I knew you would say that so I thought a little demonstration was in order." The Amazonian made a gesture toward a person in the shadows.

It was a man lying on the floor, a rag in his mouth, his hands and legs bound like an animal about to be slaughtered for the gods.

"Sethar!"

"I knew you two lovebirds haven't seen each other in a while so I thought a little reunion was in order."

Malka tried to rush toward her bodyguard only to find her arms and legs tied to the bed.

"You bitch! What do you want?"

"Just look at him. So beautiful." Diana ran her arms up and down Sethar's legs. "Such strong legs. You know, I think I'm a little envious of you, Malka."

What happened next was so fast and horrifying that Malka almost didn't believe her eyes. Diana's hands suddenly grabbed the back of Sethar's ankles and dug her nails through the skin as she ripped out his Achilles' tendons. Sethar arched his body, veins popping at his neck but Malka couldn't hear his muffled scream for the roaring in her ears.

"Oh, I'm sorry." Diana said, sauntering over to the bed. "I did say I'd try to be friends but who am I kidding? I was never very good at turning the other cheek."

She grabbed Malka's face, smearing Sethar's blood on the other woman's cheeks. Bending down so her lips were close to Malka's ear, she whispered, "Who do you think you are, mortal, to get in the way of a god?"

Outside the infirmary room, Dr. Isaac was making his daily rounds. As he flipped through Malka's vital signs, he noticed she was a little tachycardic and her breathing somewhat irregular. He took a quick peek into her room but all he saw was a woman sleeping quietly. The tears running down her face caught his attention but the flickering of her lids told him that she was deep in REM sleep.

"Hmm… must be having a bad dream," he murmured and promptly forgot the incident as he headed toward the cafeteria. They were serving shepherd's pie today – his favorite!

*******

_**I am ashamed to say it's been too long since I last updated. I've been travelling and then when I came back, there was work and real life. I thank you all for your patience and continued interest. Your reviews give me much needed motivation so please let me know what you think! If you guys have watched The Dark Knight, then you'll know this story is officially AU because of what happened to Rachel. Oh well…**_


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